Every purchase you make through these Amazon links supports DVD Verdict's reviewing efforts. Thank you!

All Rise...

Always second guessing, Judge William Lee thinks he should have order the other side with his meal.

The Charge

"If the United States refuses to give illegals a chance, and doesn't
appreciate the value of their manpower, then God forgive us, them and us.
Because some have it all and some have nothing."—Jose
Sanchez

The Case

Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman (Jeanne
Dielman, 23 Quai Du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles) does not make conventional
films. Her movies—whether experimental, documentary or fiction—seem
designed to test the viewer's patience. Those who know what they're getting
into, and those willing to devote some time and attention to a different movie
experience, will appreciate the documentaries on this two-disc set from Icarus
Films.

Akerman employs seemingly interminable long shots with a stationary camera.
Sometimes the camera will track left or right, looking out from a vehicle, to
take in great lengths of scenery. To observe that her style is deliberately slow
would be correct but to think "nothing is happening" would be wrong.
Unlike almost any other filmmaker, Akerman really makes the viewer feel the
location where she is filming. Just the amount of time spent looking at a scene
causes one's senses to absorb the details of the environment: the way shadows
shift, the sway of branches, and the distant background noises. The eerie
stillness invites contemplation and we sympathize with the inhabitants of this
land: What is it like to live here? What would I desire in such a place? How
would I cope being trapped here?

From the Other Side considers the plight of desperate illegal
migrants from Mexico attempting to cross into the United States. Since measures
were taken to secure the crossing points around San Diego, would-be migrants are
forced to cross through the deserts of Arizona. One law enforcement member on
the American side admits the increased death toll was not unexpected. The
boundary between nations is marked by barbed wire across an uninviting landscape
or unsightly sheet metal fencing that stretches as far as the eye can see.

The film hears from Mexican families that have lost loved ones in the
crossing. A few lucky individuals survived, either after being caught and
returned or forced to abandon the journey, to tell their stories. Still, others
await their opportunity to go and have put their fate in the hands of
"coyotes" that have charged a small fortune to guide them through the
desert.

North of the wall, a mix of Americans voice their sympathy, weariness or
suspicion of the illegal migrants. One rancher attributes the dual threat of
losing jobs and the spread of smallpox to Mexicans but there isn't anything
obviously sinister about his character. He's just a simple-minded man with a big
fear of outsiders.

Akerman's deliberately slow camera is also meticulously framed for beautiful
compositions that capture a sense of the wide-open vistas or surprise with quiet
observation of everyday squalor and diminishing hope. The DVD does a good job of
preserving the accomplished cinematography with a clean transfer that exhibits
strong colors.

The audio presentation is serviceable but not especially noteworthy.
Interview subjects speaking directly to the camera sound the best in this
standard stereo mix. Akerman, or her translator, utter hardly any words in the
interviews but their voices are barely understandable when they do speak
off-screen during the location shoots. The majority of the film is in Spanish
(with English subtitles) as most of it is shot on the Mexican side of the wall.
The interviews in the United States are heard in English and a final voiceover
by Akerman is spoken in French (with English subtitles).

The lone supplemental on the first disc is a five-minute clip from Akerman's
From the East.

The second disc features another visit by the director to the southern
United States in South. In Jasper, Texas, James Byrd Jr, an
African-American man, was beaten and then dragged to death behind a truck by
three white men. Akerman puts some context to the crime by taking her time in
exploring the decaying town and quiet back roads. Interviews remind us that the
African-American Civil Rights Movement is still recent history for some
residents who remember the racist oppression of their childhood. The film
attends Byrd's memorial service to witness a ritual of hope rather than anger
and sadness. Comments from another interviewee, describing the strategy whereby
white supremacy groups insidiously take over Christian churches, is
chilling.

The movie was originally planned as a meditation on the American south but
it changed focus in the wake of the brutal murder. It is a disquieting look at a
community still struggling with racism. The recollection of the crime is
sobering and it casts a shadow of deep sadness over the proceedings. Ultimately,
the film sees a glimmer of hope in the progressive attitude of the black
community and their belief that the fight is slowly being won.

The DVD presentation of South isn't quite as good as the first
feature but it is acceptable. The video footage definitely looks like it was
captured with equipment a technological generation earlier. Fine picture detail
suffers from what looks like a lower resolution source and colors look slightly
off in some scenes. These are not entirely detrimental to the film but they are
noticeable at first. Stereo sound is fine most of the time but there is some
clipping during the songs at the memorial service.

Akerman's unique style takes some getting used to—and some viewers
will simply not tolerate it—but it's worth the effort and patience. The
slowness of her films allows time to think about what was just heard in an
interview and to drink in the settings. It really cements the reality of the
places she visits and the people she meets. Her lens makes the marginalized and
ignored more than abstract issues.